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Published: December 8th 2010
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Well, Whistler certainly puts our measly snowfields to shame, as I knew it would. It was huge, and then there was Blackcomb mountain as well which was almost as big. And there was so much snow. It was interesting to see that it was a different type of snow to our snow back home - it was so powdery!
We had four nights and three days in Whistler. We arrived on Thursday night, and Craig’s cousin Ash arrived on Friday morning to snowboard with us. He has been travelling around since October, and flew into Seattle from the Middle East. It was so lovely to spend some time with him, and I think he really enjoyed being around friends after travelling by himself for so long. (It was awesome to see Ash, really enjoyed the time together! - Craig)
We stayed at a place called Blackcomb Lodge in Whistler Village. It had a stove and cook top, so we were able to have a few home cooked meals. And it was so convenient, we only had a five minute walk to the two gondolas which took us up to either Whistler or Blackcomb mountains.
On Friday, we
headed up to Whistler. Craig has never been skiing or snowboarding before, so he had an all-day lesson. He had a great day, which I’ll let him tell you all about. (Well the lesson went pretty well, by the end of the day I thought I had it mastered! I seemed to pick it all up pretty well & was so bored by the training slope by the end of the day! - Craig)
While Craig was at his lesson, I headed off with Ash. Unfortunately, after four months of minimal physical exercise and American food, I’m a bit unfit at the moment and it was really painful. My calves and thighs were burning after only a couple of minutes, and it just got worse from there. I ended up heading back after a couple of hours while Ash stayed until the lifts closed.
Craig, Ash and I headed out to a pub that night to watch the Blackhawks play the Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately the Blackhawks lost, but Craig managed to drown his sorrows in a few pints. I went home to sleep at about 9pm, and Ash and Craig rolled through the door at about midnight, yelling
and giggling, while constantly saying housekeeping in women‘s voices! (Haha was a good night out, really enjoyed catching up with Ash & having a few beers! - Craig)
The next day, on Saturday, the three of us headed up to Whistler again. We started the day on a green slope (the beginner slopes for those unfamiliar with skiing), but unfortunately a lot of the green slopes on Whistler were more like the blue slopes (intermediate) at the mountains back home and Craig struggled a bit. He lost all the confidence that he gained the day before and wasn’t having much fun. (About 5 minutes into the day was when I realised I was no good skiing, the basic training slope tricked me! After negotiating my way down the first large hill of the training run, I didn’t want to ski anymore as I sailed the whole way down out of control & really didn’t enjoy it. The simple training slopes were so gentle & basic, yet everything else was simply massive. I needed something right in the middle of the two to be able to ski successfully. - Craig)
We went to have some lunch, and then caught
the peak to peak gondola across to Blackcomb mountain from Whistler mountain. Craig was going to catch the gondola back to the hotel room from there because he had had enough, but when we were making our way across to Blackcomb we saw some slopes that looked pretty flat. So Craig decided to give it another go, and it was a really good thing that he did because the slopes were easier and he got a lot of his confidence back. (It was a much easier run over here & I enjoyed it a lot more, although I had lost all confidence in the morning, so went down a lot slower than I probably needed to do so. - Craig)
The next day Craig and I decided not to go skiing or snowboarding because we were so sore that we could barely move. Ash went up for a couple of hours, but I think he mostly went up to take photos as he was pretty sore too. I tried to book a zipline tour, but I was the only one who had booked it and so it got cancelled. It was very disappointing. But I felt a bit better
when I went off to get a 90 minute massage - heaven on my achey body! (Not sure how I did it, but my coccyx is so sore. I think I fell on my arse twice while skiing, which I’ve heard is hard to do. But I haven’t been able to sit or even lie down without lots of pain, the last few days have been a struggle! - Craig)
That night Ash and Craig headed out to the pub again, while I decided to have a night in. (Yet another good night out, a few beers had while watching some more hockey on the telly, also chatting with some random Aussies & Kiwis, who make up the whole population of Whistler! - Craig)
Then on Monday it was all over. The three of us caught a bus to Vancouver, with Ash staying in Vancouver and Craig and I hopping on another bus to Seattle. We’re going to catch up with Ash again in a week when we go back to Chicago to see some ice hockey games, which will be really great!
Tonight we’re staying in Seattle, and then tomorrow we drive to Forks - home
of Twilight!
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